Good Talk
by Ariadnerue
Summary: In which David deals with the after-effects of the Sleeping Curse, and he and Emma have a good talk. Father-daughter feels, oneshot.


_Disclaimer: Once Upon A Time belongs to ABC._

_This is for you, guest reviewer who keeps asking me to write another Emma/Charming oneshot. Takes place sometime between_ The Cricket Game _and_ Manhattan _I guess._

* * *

"Hey Mom!"

Emma smiled as Henry came running in the door of the apartment. He immediately dashed over to where she stood in the kitchen washing dishes and hugged her.

"Hey kid," she replied fondly, drying her hands quickly on a dish towel and tousling his hair. "How was knight training today?"

David quietly walked in and closed the door behind him, holding up their matching wooden swords. One of them had cracked in half.

"Well it seems Sir Henry here has outgrown my current training regimen," he answered with a grin.

Emma looked down at Henry with an impressed smile. "You broke the sword?" she asked.

"Guess I don't know my own strength," Henry shrugged with a cheeky grin.

Emma laughed and gave him a playful shove toward the stairs. "Yeah well, knights still have to brush their teeth," she pointed out.

Henry rolled his eyes. "Fine," he sighed dramatically. He hugged David briefly. "Goodnight Gramps." He started heading toward the stairs, then stopped and looked around. "Where's Gram?"

"Ugh, I wish you'd stop calling me that," Mary Margaret shuddered as she walked into the kitchen. "It makes me feel old." But she was still smiling as she opened her arms and Henry ran into them for a hug.

"Alright then, goodnight Your Highness," he laughed, and ran up the stairs before she could say anything.

Mary Margaret opened her mouth to call after him, but she couldn't seem to find any words. Emma stifled a laugh and she shot her a look.

"That is one heck of a kid you have there, Emma," she laughed, shaking her head a bit.

Emma shrugged, smirking. "Taught him everything he knows," she said lightly.

Mary Margaret rolled her eyes. David cleared his throat to get her attention, and she rolled her eyes a second time.

"Why hello David," she said with exaggerated sweetness, leaning up and kissing him by way of greeting. "How was your day?"

"Oh just lovely, my dear," he replied in the same tone. "I had a burping contest with our grandson over dinner. It was a rousing good time."

"Who won?" Emma asked pointedly as she walked around the counter and leaned back against it, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I did," David replied, raising his hand awkwardly. Mary Margaret laughed and Emma rolled her eyes. Mary Margaret took David's face in her hands and kissed him again.

"I'm going to bed," she said quietly. He nodded, and she walked over to Emma. There was an awkward moment in which she seemed to want to hug her, but instead she just reached out and tucked some of her daughter's hair behind her ear. Her fingers lingered for a moment on her cheek and Emma glanced away. "Goodnight Emma."

"G'night," Emma replied quietly, her eyes following Mary Margaret as she left the kitchen. She sighed a bit and glanced at her feet.

"Emma?" David asked quietly. Emma jumped a bit. "Sorry," he said immediately as he placed the swords on the kitchen table.

"No, it's fine, I just forgot you were there," Emma admitted sheepishly. They both stood there, Emma leaning back against the counter and David shifting his weight awkwardly near the table. "Uh… so… thanks for watching Henry," Emma finally said, not quite meeting his eyes.

"Of course," David replied with a smile. "Any time."

Emma nodded. "Goodnight then," she said, still not looking at him as she headed up the stairs.

David watched her go, his heart sinking as she did. "Goodnight Emma," he said quietly.

0000000

"Snow!"

"David, wake up."

David jerked awake and sat bolt upright in bed, panting and sweating as if he'd just run a marathon.

"Snow," he gasped, and he immediately felt her hands on his shoulders.

"I'm here," she whispered, taking his face in her hands and turning him to look her in the eyes. He blinked rapidly, trying to focus on her. She pressed her lips to his briefly, and it was like a fog was lifted from his mind. She felt the tension leave him and leaned her forehead against his, gently running her hands over his shoulders. "I'm here, Charming."

David nodded, running a hand up into her hair. This was real, he knew that. But that room full of fire… that sure as hell felt real too.

"You've only been awake from the Sleeping Curse a couple of days," Snow said quietly, as if she could hear his thoughts. "This is when the nightmares are at their worst."

"I remember," he sighed, and their eyes met for a moment. She smiled and leaned her forehead against his shoulder. Of course he remembered. He was there when she had gone through it, after all.

"I need to get some air," David said after a long silence. Mary Margaret nodded and released him from her light embrace.

"Want me to come?" she asked gently.

David sighed and kicked his legs over the edge of the bed. He turned back to her, and she just smiled at him. He leaned over and kissed her again. "I'm fine, go back to sleep," he whispered.

Mary Margaret nodded and lied back down as David slipped out of their bedroom and into the kitchen.

But the kitchen was already occupied.

"Emma?"

Emma jumped yet again. She was sitting at the kitchen table with a glass in front of her, inspecting the broken sword David had left there.

"Sorry, again," David sighed, closing the bedroom door behind him.

Emma laughed a little. "It's fine," she said with a shake of her head. "Couldn't sleep?"

"Something like that," David sighed as she sat down across from her. "You?"

"I dunno, I've been sleeping funny ever since we got back from the Enchanted Forest," she shrugged, taking a drink from her glass. David realized that it was milk, and for some reason it made him smile. "Do magical worlds have different time zones?"

David laughed, and Emma gave him a hesitant half-smile. "That's an excellent question," he sighed. The two of them lapsed into a somewhat strange silence. David stared at her, this woman who was his daughter, and his heart thudded uncomfortably in his chest. She wouldn't look at him.

"Emma," he said quietly. She glanced at him, eyes meeting his for barely a moment. He took a deep breath. He was in an odd place emotionally, and he couldn't stop himself from asking her. "Why won't you look at me?"

Emma finally looked at him, really looked at him, and he could practically see her walls slamming up around her. It was in her posture, the tension in her shoulders and the frown on her face.

"I don't know what you mean," she said tonelessly, a hardness in her eyes. It stung, that look.

"It's great that you've gotten closer to your mother since you got back from the Enchanted Forest," David said, and he was surprised by the hint of bitterness in his voice. "But you're my daughter too."

"Yeah, I guess I am," Emma said with a humorless laugh.

"I don't understand," he snapped, and her eyebrows shot up in surprise. "What makes it so different for you with me?"

Emma's eyes narrowed and she gave him a long, appraising stare. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked down.

"David Nolan makes it different," Emma said slowly.

David sat back in his chair. So that was it. He ran a tired hand down his face.

"Snow and I have made amends for everything we did while we were cursed," he replied evenly.

"That's great," Emma shot back. "That's great that you've both just moved on and forgotten what you did to her, but I haven't forgotten." She glared at him and clenched her jaw for a moment. It looked like she was going to stop speaking, but then she exhaled angrily. "You never apologized to me."

David stared at her, confused. She looked away from him again, and it was then that he noticed the tears in her eyes. He felt like he had been punched in the stomach.

"Who do you think was there to pick up the pieces when you broke her heart?" Emma snapped, her voice rising. "She was my best friend, and she was my family before I knew we were actually family, and you hurt her." Emma stopped for a moment to compose herself, remembering that her son was asleep upstairs and lowering her voice. "I had to see her like that, I laid in bed with her all night while she cried over you because she didn't want to be alone."

"Emma…" David breathed. "I am so… so sorry."

Emma stared at him warily. "What, you're not going to blame the Curse?" she asked. "That's what everyone else does."

David shook his head, a few tears slipping from his eyes. "No, I can't just blame the Curse," he said quietly. "I guess I could, but I won't." He heaved a sigh and looked at her. She just narrowed her eyes and waited for him to continue. "The Curse worked differently for me. I was David Nolan for even less time than you were in Storybrooke. All I knew when I woke up from that coma was that the life I had wasn't mine." He wiped his eyes roughly and leaned his elbows on the table. "I knew that I had it in me to be my true self, but I couldn't. The second those fake memories took hold of me, I couldn't reach any of that inside myself. I was confused, and weak… everything Charming wasn't."

David paused, staring at his daughter who was listening silently. She glanced at him, the tears still in her eyes.

"But I did see Snow in Mary Margaret, so no, I can't just blame the Curse," he sighed. "I saw her goodness and her strength, but I could never see Charming in myself. I'm so sorry, Emma. I'm sorry for everything."

Emma was silent for a long time. David didn't say anything more. He was exhausted, physically and emotionally. Finally, Emma wiped her eyes and glanced at him.

"It's okay," she said, very quietly, and David looked up at her in surprise. "I forgive you."

"You do?" he asked, shocked.

Emma chewed her lip thoughtfully. "When I first got here, Mary Margaret was a very different person," she began slowly. "She was lonely and scared. She was… timid. She started to change when I moved in with her. She got… braver. She started acting more like she does now, more like she did in the Enchanted Forest." She sighed and shook her head. "This Curse thing… I'm still getting used to the idea, honestly, but according to what Henry has told me, people only started changing when I got here. So… I'm sorry too."

"For what?" he asked, still shocked.

"I think I was too hard on you," she admitted, grimacing. "The more I learn about this Curse, the more I realize that it really did change everyone. I mean look at Mary Margaret. I made it my job to protect her, and she relied on me. But then her memories came back… her true self… and the next thing I know she's saving my ass from certain destruction every couple of minutes."

Emma shook her head again. "It threw me. I'm sure she told you how well I handled myself against an ogre," she snorted. "I'm still getting used to the idea that all of you are two different people. It's just…" She stopped for a moment and sighed heavily. "It was always the real world for me, you know?"

She finally met his eyes, a small smile on her face, and he broke into a grin.

"Emma, you never cease to amaze me," he said with an incredulous shake of his head.

She shrugged, a somewhat embarrassed smile on her face. "Yeah, I've been hearing that a lot lately," she sighed. They both got to their feet, and there was an awkward moment in which they weren't sure what to do. They both laughed, and David realized he had to make a decision. He had a split second, probably less, before she ran up those stairs. So he reacted on instinct and pulled her into a hug.

Emma stiffened in surprise, and for a moment he thought she was going to hit him. But she didn't. They just stood there for a bit, father and daughter, until Emma laughed again and stepped back. She brushed tears from her eyes and shook herself a bit.

"So…" she began awkwardly. David just smiled at her. "Good talk?"

He laughed and nodded. "Goodnight, Emma."

"Goodnight," she said quietly, and without another word she disappeared up the stairs.

David sighed. She was still running from him, and from Snow for that matter, but they were getting closer. She just needed time to get to know the real David and Mary Margaret. She needed to get to know Prince Charming and Snow White. He took her empty glass to the sink before he went back to his room.

Snow had fallen back to sleep, but not before she had lit a candle on his bedside table. David smiled fondly and tried to get back into bed without waking her, but it was no use. He hadn't even settled back into his pillow when she rolled over and snuggled into his arms.

David slept soundly through the rest of the night.


End file.
